Leg Design for a Humanoid Walking Robot

The paper presents the leg design of the 22-DoF humanoid walking robot Lola. The goal of the project is to realize a fast, human-like walking motion. The robot is characterized by its lightweight construction, a modular, multi-sensory joint design with brushless motors and an electronics architecture using decentralized joint controllers and sensor data processing. Linear actuators are used for the knee and ankle joints to achieve a better mass distribution in the legs and to improve performance of the stabilizing control. Some critical structural parts have been designed by means of topology optimization in order to balance the demands for high stiffness and strength with low weight

I. Introduction

Due to recent developments in enabling technologies (biped walking control, mechatronics, computer technology) and findings in other fields like biomechanics, the development of humanoid robots is currently in an exciting phase. Prominent examples of sophisticated robots are Honda's Asimo [1], H7 from Tokyo University [2], HRP-2 from AIST and Kawada Industries [3], the world's first running biped QRIO from Sony [4], Wabian-2 from Waseda University [5] and the Korean robot HUBO from KAIST [6].